Climate change and energy update

Five myths about gas prices

The 'Holy Grail' of science: The artificial leaf researchers claim will turn every home into its own power station

Placed in a single gallon of water in a bright sunlight, the device could produce enough electricity to supply a house in a developing country with electricity for a day, Nocera said.  

It does so by splitting water into its two components, hydrogen and oxygen. 

The hydrogen and oxygen gases would be stored in a fuel cell, which uses those two materials to produce electricity, located either on top of the house or beside it.

US Households More Efficient, But More Plugged In

It's certainly a positive sign that energy use remains at roughly the same despite a large growth in the number of households: since 1978 the United States added millions of homes, up to 111.1 in 2005 from 76.6 million occupied housing units in 1978, while the EIA reports that improvements in efficiency have led to a 31 percent reduction in energy use per household. Even with 45 percent more homes in 2005, Americans reduced the total amount of energy used on heating--down to 4.30 quads from 1978's 6.96--due to improvements in home design and as well as the increased efficiency of heating devices.

Two-thirds of oil and gas leases in Gulf inactive 

Opec set for $1,000bn in export revenues

Opec, the oil producers’ cartel, will reap $1,000bn in export revenues this year for the first time if crude prices remain above $100 a barrel, according to the International Energy Agency. 

The cartel has been one of the main beneficiaries of high oil prices, which have soared in recent weeks amid the civil uprisings in the Middle East and north Africa.

How will we dispose of spent nuclear fuel rods for centuries to come?

California Assembly OKs increased renewable energy requirement: The mandate, now headed for governor's desk, would require utilities to increase renewable energy sources to 33% by 2020.

The largest economic activity on earth

Energy is the largest economic activity on earth (much larger than agriculture) and the industry with the highest capitalization (much higher than car manufacturing). Energy units are confusing (megawatts, kilowatt-hours, tons of carbon, CO2 equivalents, BTUs and Gigajoules), but the scale of the system makes these units even more remote (terawatt-hours, exajoules, gigatons, quadrillion BTUs). This makes it hard to bring the discussion home — the discussion starts in a rarified, almost other-worldly place. 

Let’s talk gigatons — one billion tons. Every year, human activity emits about 35 gigatons of CO2 (the most important greenhouse gas). Of that, 85% comes from fossil fuel burning. To a lot of people, that doesn’t mean much — who goes to the store and buys a gigaton of carrots? For a sense of perspective, a gigaton is about twice the mass of all people on earth, so 35 gigatons is about 70 times the weight of humanity. Every year, humans put that in the atmosphere, and 85% of that is power. Large actions, across whole nations and whole economies, are required to move the needle.